EXIT STAGE LEFT
Friday, May 15, 1998
In the case of the cancellation of Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, a one-act, end-of-year project by Martin High School theater students, the question is not so much the suppression of ideas but whether the vehicle carrying those ideas was appropriate for a student production.
Principal Steve Jacoby was right in preventing the production and finding out whether the script had been adequately reviewed. He is responsible for finding those answers and judging them fairly, and he should be left alone to do so.
Jacoby also faces a similar task with The Warrior POST, the Martin newspaper, and its faculty adviser, who has been placed on administrative leave with pay. The principal is trying to learn how several attempts at humorous senior farewell columns - later deemed offensive and in violation of district guidelines - made it into the May 11 edition. Clearly, Jacoby is having a busy end of the school year.
Balancing freedom and propriety in student projects is a subjective business, and we offer but one caution to those who jump to criticize Jacoby, his staff and these students: Suppression is not something to be taken lightly.
As condensed, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress does contain adult situations and words that render it inappropriate for most student productions. But the problem is that although you may be offended by some parts of it, by suppressing you throw out all of it. The part that you like is lost along with that which offends.
A good example of this in Five Women is the character Frances, who vocally opposes drug use, blasphemy and fornication, professes respect for her parents and believes that the Bible is the holy word of God. Now Martin's students and their families will not have the chance to be offended by this play, but they will not hear from Frances, either.